


Fatherhood

by TulePubPirate



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Fluff without Plot, Just some dads and their daughter and some pancakes, M/M, One Shot, you've heard of porn with no plot now get ready for
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-16
Updated: 2018-03-16
Packaged: 2019-04-01 07:40:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13993644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TulePubPirate/pseuds/TulePubPirate
Summary: Barret's home from work, just in time for Cloud to get real insecure about caring for Marlene.





	Fatherhood

Cloud woke up to a bellowing baritone, belting out some old folk song over the sound of sizzling bacon. He untangled himself slowly from the mess of little girls’ clothes he’d fallen asleep folding and shuffled towards the kitchen.

“ _Dude.”_ Barret just grinned in response, finishing up the chorus of his song with a flourish and an admittedly impressive flip of a pancake. Cloud slumped at the island and reached over to grab his own pancake from the leaning tower Barret had already done up. “When did you even get back?”

“Little bit before five this mornin’,” Barret answered shaking his head at Cloud’s table manners. “Saw you all wrapped up in Marlene’s clothes like a bird makin’ a nest and figured you wouldn’t be awake to make breakfast." 

Cloud frowned, but he couldn’t argue. Especially since Barret knew full well that breakfasts with Cloud consisted of cereal, or toast, and maybe an orange if he was alive enough to make Marlene eat something healthy. The one time he had tried to make a breakfast feast a la Barret it was such a disaster that Marlene ended up running to get Tifa to make him stop. He was always relieved when Barret came back to pick up the Dad Duties–Cloud was not cut out for the stuff.

“How long you back for?” he asked, reaching for another pancake. Most of the stack was for him anyway–Barret knew his appetite. 

“Til the end of the week, at least!” Barret replied, voice triumphant. “Got finished up with the last gig early! Told Reeve I was havin’ some quality time with the family!” 

Cloud took a bite to hide his smile, just as little footsteps came stampeding down the stairs.

“PAPA!” Marlene hurled herself into the kitchen, and Barret didn’t miss a beat, turning around to scoop her into a spectacular bear hug.

“Baby girl!” He rubbed his scruffy cheek against hers, making her giggle and push his face away. He gave her a kiss on the forehead and set her down so she could scramble up onto a stool next to Cloud.

“You didn’t say you were coming home on the phone yesterday! Are you gonna be back for a long time? I missed you so much! Cloud missed you too, right Cloud?”

Cloud blinked, suddenly put on the spot, and looked from Marlene’s glowing smile to Barret’s content one. “Uh, yeah, sure.”

Barret burst out laughing, “Don’t hurt yourself gettin all worked up Cloud!” making Cloud frown at him. It wasn’t like it was a lie; he just normally didn’t say that kind of stuff. He wasn’t as feelings-y as the Wallace duo were. 

“Come on papa! He just doesn’t say it!” Marlene insisted, seeming to read Cloud’s mind. “Say you’re gonna be back more than a few days this time! Please?” 

“I got til the end of the week,” he replied, making Marlene’s eyes light up even brighter. “Maybe a bit longer, if it takes awhile for the next project to start up. But don’t get your hopes too high.” Too late, Marlene was already cheering and throwing her arms in the air, spinning her stool so wildly that Cloud instinctively reached his arms out to catch her. 

“Marlene, chill, or you’re gonna spend your dad’s vacation with a broken arm.” She stopped spinning, but the grin on her face had not shrunk a bit. Instead she grabbed his arm.

“Cloud! We gotta think of something fun to do! Eat faster!” 

Cloud nodded, not quite understanding why Marlene insisted he “help” her make plans, considering she never seemed to need his–or anyone’s–input. Barret chuckled again, pulling plates out from the cupboard (thankfully Cloud had actually gotten to doing the dishes last night) and set out one for each of them. Cloud sat quietly and ate, soaking in the chatter as Marlene detailed everything that Barret had missed since his last phone call, which was an impressive amount of activity, considering they'd talked last night. She had to be practically thrown out the door to go to school, insisting she should get to stay home, and only begrudgingly left under the condition that Barret come pick her up himself the exact second the schoolday was over.

As the volume in the house instantly dropped, Cloud sat back down on the couch, quietly finishing the folding job he’d given up on yesterday. After watching him for a moment, Barret plopped down with his full weight, jostling Cloud and making him jerk his head up, only to have Barret ruffle his hair with all his strength. 

“Wha–hey! What the hell!?” Cloud escaped from Barret’s grip –not without some effort– and shot him a death stare. 

Barret just laughed. “Quit stressin’,” he said, reaching over to start helping fold clothes. “If you weren’t doin’ a good job, I wouldn’t be leavin’ her with you.” 

Cloud frowned, unable to find a way to counter that logic. After a bit he said, “But I suck at all this domestic stuff. She cooks more than I do. And Tifa had to teach me three times how to wash clothes the right way. And thank god she’s smart because just looking at her homework makes my brain hurt and she’s only in the second grade.” Cloud sighed, slouching back on the couch. “I have no idea what I’m doing. Why the hell do you trust me with your kid? For fuck’s sake I spent most of my formative years in a tube.”

Barret picked up a dress that Cloud had bought for Marlene –with help from Tifa, of course– and smiled. “You been doing this for what? Less than a year now? You think I knew what I was doin’ at that point? Ain’t no parent know what the hell they doin’ Cloud! I was the youngest of all my siblings. When I got Marlene I’d never changed a diaper. I’d never done the wash. I’d never had to deal with a baby cryin’. And I had one arm!” Cloud watched Barret’s face intently. He rarely spoke of his early days as Marlene’s dad. Cloud was worried about old wounds reopening, but Barret just looked nostalgic. “If it weren’t for findin’ AVALANCHE, and finding all y’all, ain’t no way in hell I’d be able to do any of it. I felt like I was always screwin’ up, raisin’ her on my own. Took three people just to stop her runnin’ into traffic when she learned to walk.” 

“Yeah, but, you at least  _feel_ like an adult.”

“You callin’ me old?” Barret turned and raised an eyebrow at Cloud, who raised an eyebrow back, a joking smile tugging at his face. “Look man, I know you had a fucked up life. Ain’t gonna argue on that one. But not knowin’ how to pack a lunch don’t make you a bad dad. And don’t make me a grown up.” He turned back to folding the laundry and Cloud noticed how Barret defaulted to using just one hand when he wasn’t paying attention to it, despite having had his prosthesis for so long. “You know all the important parts. How to be kind. And loving. How to protect her. How to want the world to be better than the shithole we grew up in, so she don’t have to deal with the crap we dealt with. You’ve already been doin’ all of that. When she calls me, she talks all about you –helpin’ her sort out her problems, showin’ her how to fix her bicycle, playin’ along with her games, and showin’ up to her school events. You don’t let her get away with using those big brown eyes to get out of trouble as much as I do.” Barret placed the last shirt on a stack and leaned back, placing and arm around Cloud’s shoulders. “And you don’t gotta be good at all of it anyway. That’s why there’s two of us. For when one of us screws up.”

Cloud couldn’t help but smile at the earnest look on Barret’s face, although he wasn’t sure if he believed all that or not. It still felt good to hear, for now. 

“Fine,” he said, closing his eyes and leaning against Barret’s side, feeling the early morning sink into him. “But you  _are_ old though.” He snickered as Barret cursed him and shoved him onto the floor, making both of them jump as the pile of clothes began tipping over. 

**Author's Note:**

> You can take the gun-arm away from the man, but you can't make the man relearn to do things he already got used to doing one-handed on account of the gun-arm.


End file.
